using anchor points in Adobe Substance 3D painter, to create welding spatter instead of sculpting them. A balance between sculpting details in Zbrush and using painting height details in Painter, like this, allows way more freedom in texturing and room for some experimentation.

@Substance3D This stuff is so much nicer to do in texturing than ZBrush. It removes any baking artefacts and such.

@Substance3D Yep exactly this. General rule is if it can be done in painter with the same result, it's probably better you do it in painter. Direction can change, prevents any annoying rebakes etc.

@Substance3D Didn’t even know weld splatter was a thing O_O thats a huge attention to detail

I figured you probably used ZBrush to get those amazing weld joints. A trick I like doing it adding in normal map details and exporting that map, then reimporting it as a replacement in the texture bake settings. Then, any heightmap/normal details I paint on will interact with dirt gen masks/edge wear without having to modify the high poly.

@Substance3D those welding details look superb

@Substance3D I will continue to avoid sculpting at any cost

@Substance3D Nice!

@Substance3D It's pretty close but they're generally smaller, spherical globs that are too cooled off to melt in so deeply, or even adhere well enough to hang on for long. also getting a close look at the welds, if they don't sink into the metal slightly it's a sign they won't work

@Substance3D Right on. This is great. Nicely done!

@Substance3D Holy smokes, is that a super high quality pipe revolver?

@Substance3D it's this thing